The pregnant wife of one of Britain’s richest men who is one of Prince Andrew’s closest friends says her husband has dumped her and their two young children while she was away on holiday.
Jonathan Rowland’s Russian wife told of her hurt and upset after the 44-year-old businessman, whose property developer father David Rowland is worth £612 million, ended their marriage so suddenly.
Anya Rowland says she suspected ‘nothing of the oncoming disaster’ when she returned to their marital home from a break in the Dominican Republic to find Mr Rowland had packed his things and gone, leaving their two children aged four and two in the care of their nanny.
Jonathan Rowland’s wife Anya (pictured together at the couple’s wedding in 2016) says that her husband has left her after she took a ‘well-deserved’ holiday to the Dominican Republic
Russian Anya, who is four months pregnant, says Mr Rowland, 44, packed up all of his things while she was away and told the nanny that he was clearing up to make space for the new baby
Anya, who attended Princess Eugenie’s wedding in 2018 with her husband, revealed details of the sudden marriage collapse in a series of heart-rending Instagram posts in which she says: ‘While I was on my very well deserved vacation in the Dominican Republic suspecting nothing of the oncoming disaster, my remarkable husband packed all his things, making sure to make use of the situation while no one was home and brought everything over to his new residence of which he has never informed me.’
Mr Rowland (seen with pal Prince Andrew) insists that he and his wife are still together
Providing further details of her upset, the mother-of-two reveals how Mr Rowland removed expensive art works from their £2million home in South London while she was away, claiming that he was ‘making space’ for their new baby.
She writes: ‘During my absence, my two children, my mother and our housekeeper were at home. They too unfortunately were not informed.
‘One day my dear husband was noticed by my housekeeper while he was taking down paintings and to her puzzled expression and her questions he responded that he was just making space for the new baby.’
Revealing her pain, she cries: ‘Of course I won’t hide that I am hurt by his actions and of course I would have preferred to peacefully discuss the situation and to agree on a mutual separation after having respectfully informed all family members.’
Mr Rowland is the son of property multi-millionaire David ‘Spotty’ Rowland, a former Conservative treasurer and party donor who reportedly helped to clear some of the Duchess of York’s debts.
David, 74, is a scrap metal dealer’s son from South London who left school without any qualifications but has found himself rubbing shoulders with English royalty, developing a close bond with Andrew. He was 226th on last year’s Sunday Times Rich List.
Mr Rowland has strong links to Prince Andrew after his property tycoon father David Rowland, 74, reportedly paid off some of the Duke’s debts. Mr Rowland and his wife Anya were seen (above) attending Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank in 2018
The couple met in 2014 at a business event and married in 2016 when Anya, from St Petersburg, was eight months pregnant with their first child and her UK visa was set to expire
The two have been friends since at least 2005. That year, the Prince unveiled a bronze statue of the financier in the grounds of Havilland Hall, Rowland’s sprawling estate in Guernsey. In 2009, Andrew publicly launched the Rowlands’ bank in Luxembourg.
David, who has given the Tories almost £3m, is a shareholder in dozens of offshore companies. Along with members of his family, Rowland held shares and property in British Virgin Islands screen entities.
One of his companies – Blackfish Capital – bought a division of the collapsed Icelandic bank Kaupthing in June 2009, with the banking operations being restructured into the Luxembourg-based Banque Havilland, named after David’s Jersey mansion.
Jonathan, who is heir to his father’s fortune and oversees all his investments, has been criticised in the past for his close links to Andrew who has been accused of using his official position to work behind the scenes for the wealthy Rowland family.
Mr Rowland apparently spent time while his wife was away clearing his things from the couple’s £2million home in South London. He left the day his wife returned, she claims
This included the Duke taking Mr Rowland on taxpayer funded trade missions to Saudi Arabia and China and plugging the Rowland’s private bank to help them land rich clients.
Recent leaked messages showed that Andrew and Mr Rowland discussed secretly continuing their controversial business relationship ‘under the radar’ to escape media scrutiny over the Duke’s links to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, prior to the prince being forced to quit as the UK’s trade envoy.
Anya’s distressing account over how her marriage has come to a tragic end has once again raised serious concerns over the behaviour of those within Andrew’s inner-circle.
When asked about her Instagram posts, Anya told MailOnline: ‘All the facts are there. There’s nothing more to say.’
When MailOnline visited the family home, Mr Rowland answered the door, denying that he had left Anya and insisting that they are ‘still together.’
Anya, seen embracing her husband during happier times, has chronicled the collapse of her marriage on Instagram to her 14,000 followers as she says Mr Rowland has dumped her
However, just hours later, Anya posted that he only returned for 30 minutes where he ‘turned on the TV and was on the phone.’
She also fumed that Rowland appeared to show little interest in their forthcoming baby: ‘The kids were watching TV, then he asked me how far along I was and how I was going to name the baby.’
Revealing her anguish at having to explain matters to the children, she laments: ‘These are the conversations that I am having with David on a daily basis. ‘Where is papa? Is he going to be home for dinner? Is he coming hone to say good night to me. Papa doesn’t live with us any more?’
Anya bravely adds: ‘Barely able to hold my own tears back I am finding answers to the endless questions of my boys. I fully understand that I have to hold myself together and have to explain everything as reasonably as possible without any sense of negativity. Under no circumstances must I project my own grievances towards their father and try to instill their love for him despite his actions and his decisions.’
Anya met Mr Rowland six years ago at a business event. They married in 2016 when she was eight months pregnant with their first child and her UK visa was about to expire.
Anya, who was born in Novgorod, Russia moved to London to work in finance after studying business at St Petersburg University.
In a series of bizarre Instagram messages Anya insists that her and her husband have split up, while the businessman, who has two children from a previous marriage says they are together
Controversial Mr Rowland divorced his first wife Zoe, with whom he has two children, in 2006 following an acrimonious court battle in which she was awarded a share of his future inheritance. He left school at 16 and seized the opportunity of the dotcom boom to make millions.
Despite her pain, which has been exacerbated by now being a single mother to two children and another on the way, Anya exhibits remarkable resiliance.
She defiantly posts: ‘Evidently the fact that we are expecting a third and we already have two small children only 18 months apart of age is not making my situation easier, but it is likely that the earlier this happened the less conscious and damaging it is going to be for the boys and the quicker formal questions are going to be resolved and we will start our new life.’